This thesis develops a framework for understanding how social enterprises engage the
poor and address poverty, a pressing global problem of the 21st century. Using casebased
theory building, it studies a theoretical sample of three pairs of Philippine-based
social enterprises, where the poor were suppliers, workers, and customers. In half of
the cases, the poor were also owners. The research studies the roles and role changes
of the poor in these social enterprises, how and why these roles changed, or did not
change, and the impact of the roles and role changes, if any, on the social enterprises
and the poor. Data for the research was gathered mainly from key informant
interviews, published and unpublished organizational documents as well as previous
studies done by external consultants on the case subjects. Based on a cross case
analysis of the data from the theoretical sample, the thesis develops three models of
stakeholder engagement among social enterprises with the poor as primary
stakeholders or SEPPS, namely: control, collaboration and empowerment. This thesis
provides insights and develops propositions about the importance of stakeholder
engagement and the power and limitations of these three models in bringing about
social inclusion and poverty reduction. These propositions are suggested to be
applicable in countries in the South other than the Philippines where systemic poverty
and inequality are exacerbated by the failure of state and market institutions to
address the needs of the poor. This thesis makes a contribution to social
entrepreneurship and stakeholder theory. It does so by sharing a perspective from the
South and giving a voice to the poor as stakeholders. The researcher notes that
overall, the poor and the South are under-represented in these discourses. On the
whole, social entrepreneurship theorizing has been characterized as embryonic as a
topic of academic inquiry. Stakeholder engagement is considered an under-theorized
area in stakeholder theory. In developing a framework for understanding stakeholder
engagement models involving the poor, this thesis makes a first step towards applying
and extending stakeholder theory in SEPPS. The thesis likewise enriches social
entrepreneurship theory by conceiving of SEPPS as a global social enterprise model
that catalyzes South-North cooperation to address poverty and inequality.